Intellectual Property – copyright — statute of limitations

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//October 23, 2014//

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Civil

Intellectual Property – copyright — statute of limitations

Inquiry notice is insufficient to begin tolling the statute of limitations for copyright infringement.

“Merck involved a statutory discovery rule; in copyright cases the discovery rule is a common-law gloss. Still, Merck clarified that ‘inquiry notice’ is not a substitute for actual or constructive discovery, and that clarification is instructive here. The concept of inquiry notice may help to identify the time at which a reasonable plaintiff can be expected to start investigating a possible violation of his rights, but it does not itself trigger the statute of limitations. Accordingly, the district court should not have used inquiry notice as the starting date for the statute of limitations.”

Reversed and Remanded.

12-3037 Chicago Building Design P.C. v. Mongolian House Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Bucklo, J., Sykes, J.

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